


Thoughts During a Summer Night

by LokoteiBex



Series: Rapunzel Appreciation Week 2020 [3]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Rapunzel Appreciation Week 2020 (Disney)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25584685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LokoteiBex/pseuds/LokoteiBex
Summary: On the way back to Corona from the Dark Kingdom, Rapunzel has time to reflect on recent events.
Relationships: Cassandra & Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Series: Rapunzel Appreciation Week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850176
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Thoughts During a Summer Night

**Author's Note:**

> Rapunzel Appreciation Week Day 3 - Destiny
> 
> This's one's a little rambly. I wasn't sure where I was going with it, so I just channeled that into Rapunzel's thought process.

Rapunzel wasn’t sure she believed in destiny. It was a really hard thing to pin down. It was also an uncomfortable thought to think that her actions were controlled by some higher power, that she had no choice in where her life went. If that was the case, then the whole world was just a bigger tower.

Destiny was a fine excuse though. If she called what she was doing destiny, she could justify just about anything, and most people would just go along with her. She remembered when Eugene had said their meeting was due to a horse, and in retrospect, that just lined up with how he didn’t really believe in bigger things that he couldn’t see. Not fortunes or prophecies or, for that matter, destinies.

He did believe in purpose, though, because purpose was something you gave yourself. Rapunzel tried to think of this big, unblinking  _ thing  _ that she was doing as her purpose, but then… she hadn’t chosen it either, had she? She hadn’t chosen to be the Sundrop. She hadn’t chosen to be sought out by the black rocks. Her nightmares had told her to accept her destiny, and that was her subconscious talking to her, so maybe she did believe in it after all.

So maybe what she wasn’t sure about was whether or not she  _ wanted  _ to believe.

Cassandra had said she was fulfilling her  _ own  _ destiny when she snatched the Moonstone away from Rapunzel’s open hand. But how could destinies collide like that? How could two people be meant to be on the same path? Or maybe Rapunzel’s destiny was to deliver Cassandra safely to the Moonstone, and not to take it for herself?

These were the things -  _ some  _ of the things - Rapunzel pondered as their balloon drifted over the world, retracing the steps they’d taken by caravan for nearly a year. While it was much faster to travel this way, it still took time, and when they landed and bedded down for the night, she had several hours of quiet in which to contemplate.

She never spoke of any of it to anyone, preferring to keep her chipper facade up so as not to worry everyone else. Her emotions were a heavy burden, and damming them up was the only way she was carrying on one foot in front of the other right now. But when the crickets were chirping, their night song blending with the chorus of snores from her travel companions, Rapunzel was alone for the first time in months.

She looked at them all, sleeping peacefully, and she wondered what each of them thought was going on. She wondered if each of them believed in destiny and that she was following a path laid out before her by unseen cosmic hands. Eugene often said she was following hers, but he said it in that supportive tone he used when he was humoring her and letting her make her own choices. The only one who let her make her own choices. He had faith in her, and that was the closest he got to being a religious man. An unwavering faith in Rapunzel.

But he had faith because he had seen what she could do. It circled back to him not believing in the unseen. It was a lot of pressure, though. What if she let them down? What if she let  _ him  _ down? The one persona who always believed she could do what she set her mind to.

If she were honest with herself, leaving the Dark Kingdom this way felt a little like running away. From what, she wasn’t sure, but she had failed in the Moonstone chamber, and although there was nothing left to be done there, just going home felt like licking her wounds. It wasn’t in her nature, but she didn’t know what else to do. She didn’t know where Cassandra had gone, and was still reeling from the betrayal. A more seasoned warrior might call it a tactical retreat, but she wasn’t so sure.

She looked around at her sleeping companions again and wondered if they felt let down by her. She certainly did. Maybe it was time to stop putting others in danger, or expecting them to help her with anything. Maybe it was time to be alone again, herself against the world. Maybe that was the only way to wrangle her destiny.


End file.
